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It's also called Labidochromis textilus just to hype the confusion. I had these guys in a two species with Julidochromis and they were really pretty mild. No one abused anyone else, and both species were prolific breeders.

Originally posted by aharris It's also called Labidochromis textilus just to hype the confusion. I had these guys in a two species with Julidochromis and they were really pretty mild. No one abused anyone else, and both species were prolific breeders.

Labidochromis textilus is actually a different species although it looks almost identical to the female M. joanjohnsonae.

yeah i think mine is the female M. joanjohnsonae. She's yellow with blue markings, and blue on the head.. very pretty, but the most aggressive fish i have.. Mainly goes after my convict for some reason. The others will puff back at her, and so she leaves them alone, my con is just a little wuss.. hehe

ok - old thread - but I was interested in more information... I came accross a breeder that has a trio of textilus (I asked for joanjohnsonae, and he offered textilus...) So are textilus and joanjohnsonae different, same?? what's the deal??

okay, from what I've found, Lab. textilis is a different species. according to Ad - quoted on this site:http://www.african-cichlid.com/Joanjohnstoni.htm
and the juvi pic (thee only one on malawi mayhem) seems a bit more orange than the joanjohnsonae. However, on malawi mayhem "textilis" is listed as a common name for the joanjohnsonae as well... hmmm... I think what is comes down to is what the adult male textilis looks like. If he's a blue with light black barring and a stripe along the top of the dorsal, I'd say they're the same... but I saw one pic that looked like the adult male textilis is a greenish color with orange specles (beautiful btw) hmmm... either way I'm grabbing the trio!

Ok - I attached an old pic of one of my males:
you can kinda still see the horizontal orange striping a bit... which is pretty much gone now and it looks more like the pics on the link I have above. but then follow this link and it has two pics of joanjohnsonae http://species.fishindex.com/species...r_cichlid.html
the top one looks pretty close to a juvi joanjohnsonae to me - my "female" (as I think it's a female at least) has a bit of blue in the face but looks pretty close to that too... then the second pic to me looks like what I've seen as a textilis. Also note that in the "other scientific names" section there are about 10 different names, one of which is Lab. textilis... hmmm...
But then look at this pic http://malawicichlids.com/mw09002.htm
This is supposedly a male textilis... not sure if its a color morph or what, but it is GORGEOUS! so yeah. I'm still confused, but I like my joanjohnsonae and the looks of these hypothetically different textilis. But I'll be getting a trio of "textilis" in the next 10 days, so I guess I'll be able to let you guys know what happens...

Lab. Textilis is quite rare in the hobby. LFSs will often have their Melan. Joanjohnsonae incorrectly labeled as Textilis. I've seen it MANY times. Textilis females are blue, not the orange/blue speckled color of the Melan. JJ females.

Exasperatus is just an old name for Joanjohnsonae. Same fish.

So, I'd say there is a 90% chance that your LFS's "textilis" is actually a Melan. JJ. I bought a pair from the most reputible LFS in Minnesota, and even they had them mislabeled.

And yes, they are Melanochromis, and therefore quite aggressive. I still have a 2-year old male, and he bullies larger fish.